{"id":76,"date":"2026-05-25T07:07:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T07:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=76"},"modified":"2026-05-25T07:07:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T07:07:57","slug":"funds-to-combat-child-exploitation-added-to-reconciliation-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=76","title":{"rendered":"Funds to combat child exploitation added to reconciliation bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Homeland Security Department would get a new influx of funding to investigate child exploitation cases, including to identify victims of sexual abuse material online, under the GOP budget reconciliation bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Blanche says he won\u2019t recommend pardoning Maxwell<\/a><\/p>\n

The $108.5 million added in a substitute amendment Tuesday\u00a0would support hiring additional investigators and forensic analysts within the department. The roughly $72 billion immigration enforcement package advanced out of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on an 8-5 vote.<\/p>\n

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., pushed to include the funds in reconciliation, which he said would allow DHS to add 200 new positions to \u201crescue children who have been captured by sex trafficking, including a new program for local, state and federal law enforcement to coordinate their efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something [I\u2019ve] personally worked very hard to get into the bill, and I\u2019m ecstatic about it,\u201d he said. \u201cTo me, it\u2019s one of the most important things we\u2019ll do in this bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

The funds would support hiring at the Victim Identification Laboratory of the Child Exploitation Investigations Unit and the offices of the Special Agent in Charge, both within Homeland Security Investigations.<\/p>\n

The bill says the money would support investigators in \u201cthe identification and rescue of victims of child sexual exploitation and abuse\u201d as well as training for state and local law enforcement in identifying victims. That training, according to the bill, would be within the Homeland Security Investigations Cyber Crimes Center.<\/p>\n

The reconciliation text specifies that funds, which are part of a larger appropriation to Homeland Security Investigations, could not be used for immigration enforcement or customs enforcement.<\/p>\n

At the committee markup Tuesday, one Democrat also sought funding for the issue. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., offered an amendment that she said would have diverted funding for Secret Service security upgrades at the White House \u2014 widely associated with the president\u2019s ballroom project \u2014 to instead \u201ccounter child sex exploitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., successfully moved to table the amendment, noting that the committee\u2019s reconciliation text does not include funding for the ballroom.<\/p>\n

Read more GOP senators push for challenge to House maps in Democratic states<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest push on kids safety<\/h2>\n

The new funding for child exploitation investigations would add to a bicameral, bipartisan push to protect children online.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Hawley led a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee\u2019s panel on Crime and Counterterrorism focused on child sex trafficking. Former football player and media personality Tim Tebow testified alongside a victim\u2019s mother and a representative, Staca Shehan, of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Shehan told the committee that a new reporting law for online platforms led to an \u201castounding\u201d increase in reports of child sex trafficking.<\/p>\n

In February, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved three bills sponsored by Chair Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, as part of a manager\u2019s amendment to a House-passed bill that would criminalize threats to distribute sexual depictions of a minor. The package carries the name of James T. Woods, a teenager who died by suicide in 2022 after being the victim of online sexual extortion.<\/p>\n

Grassley\u2019s bills included sections on sentencing guidelines for child sexual abuse material, threats to distribute such material and schemes to coerce children into violence.<\/p>\n

The House Judiciary Committee forwarded the original bill, along with one that would make it a crime to compel a minor to harm themselves or others, including animals, through threats or extortion and another that would update child sexual abuse material statutes to make it a crime to include a minor in a visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct, even if the minor does not participate, in December of last year. All three bills have since passed in the House.<\/p>\n

The Senate Judiciary Committee also recently voted unanimously to forward a bill by Hawley that would require providers of artificial intelligence companion chatbots to verify users\u2019 ages and ban minors from the companions. Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has introduced his own chatbot-focused bill, which would require providers to give parents tools to govern their children\u2019s use of chatbots. He has said that the Commerce Committee will hold a markup of multiple children\u2019s online safety bills within the next month.<\/p>\n

The House Energy and Commerce Committee combined 12 different kids\u2019 internet safety measures into one bill in March. It would set new requirements for parental controls and require online platforms to put policies in place to address certain harms to kids online. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Massie ousted in Kentucky primary by Trump-backed challenger<\/a><\/p>\n

Aris Folley contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Homeland Security Department would get a new influx of funding to investigate child exploitation cases, including to identify victims of sexual abuse material online, under the GOP budget reconciliation bill.  The $108.5 million added in a substitute amendment Tuesday\u00a0would support hiring additional investigators and forensic analysts within the department. The roughly $72 billion immigration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress"],"yoast_head":"\nFunds to combat child exploitation added to reconciliation bill - American Industry Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=76\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Funds to combat child exploitation added to reconciliation bill - American Industry Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Homeland Security Department would get a new influx of funding to investigate child exploitation cases, including to identify victims of sexual abuse material online, under the GOP budget reconciliation bill.  The $108.5 million added in a substitute amendment Tuesday\u00a0would support hiring additional investigators and forensic analysts within the department. 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